The moon is just a mirror: Lantern Giveaway
September 3, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky host a special evening event marking the transformation of their installation, there is nothing you can think that is not the moon, which currently houses over 300 handmade lanterns the artists started making in 2022. Rhonda and Trevor invite you to take home one of these unique lanterns, a rare opportunity to receive an artwork and give these lanterns an extended life. The parade of illuminated lanterns leaving the exhibition will create a scattering of light, reminiscent of traditional lantern festivals.
The making and sharing of these lanterns is an evolving aspect of the duo’s practice where they create an economy of copying, sharing and remaking objects. The current lanterns will be replaced by lanterns visitors have made during special workshops with Rhonda, that replicate objects they have lost or given away. These lanterns, small time capsules of visitor’s memories mirroring objects that once existed, will remain on view through winter.
Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky, based in New York and Toronto respectively, have worked collaboratively since 2004. Their work has increasingly incorporated communal aspects of craft, such as DIY tutorial videos, and virtual crafting bees. Their recent video project Crafts Abyss was hosted by the Museum of Arts & Design, NYC. Their work is in collections including the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Musee d’art Contemporain de Montreal. Weppler was an artist in residence with the School of Visual Arts NYC (MFA program, 2017), and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (Governor’s Island, 2021). In 2018 she completed a major project for the Community Arts program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. They have received a Glenfiddich Residency Prize (2014), and an LL Odette Sculpture Residency at York University (Toronto, 2022). Their exhibitions in 2022-23 included OpenArt (Orebro, Sweden), and Susan Hobbs Gallery (Toronto).